1701hrs, on board the Talgo 297 to Madrid Atocha
despite the apparent laidback nature you see in this country, you’d never guess how punctual the trains are. i guess this is my last entry for this whirlwind five-city vacation. i guess it was no mean feat to do such a thing, then again, there are people who have achieved much more – like doing hoek van holland-amsterdam-antwerpen-oostende in less than 24 hours (i wonder who that may be).

we checked out this morning and decided to have one last walkabout in granada. had a gorgeous brekkie of the usual (i’m saving churros for later tonight at san gines) near plaza bib-rambla. we headed for albaicÃ­n again. i know – it seems we never get enough of that part of the city. but since this is our last day before our flight back to london tomorrow, we were gonna do some souvenir-hunting. albaicÃ­n does have an uncanny similarity to the alhambra. there were fountains and wells of the clearest water. there were even rectangular pools which were mini versions of the ones we saw in the patios of the palacios nazaries. another curiousity is the central drains that we saw on the pebbled alleyways.

after buying enough souvenirs (i wish i could’ve bought a guitar) that we could fit into our rucksacks, it was lunch alfresco at plaza nueva. ok, both of us had kebabs in england but to actually savour beef (as opposed to kambing) and the crispiest chicken kebab shreds with pilau rice was simply gastronomically out of this world.

looks like we’ll be arriving in madrid around 11pm. anuar has bought us tix to catch superman returns (el regreso – but we are catching the versiÃ³n original with spanish subs. hehe.). i wonder if i have enough strength to go to chocolaterÃ­a san gines after that!